The Museum of African American History is dedicated to preserving,
conserving and accurately interpreting the contributions of African
Americans in New England from the colonial period through the
19th century.

2009 MAAH Past Events

Monday, November 16, 2009

6:30 pm

Dudley Branch Library

65 Warren Street

Roxbury, MA 02119

617-442-6186

Join us at the Dudley Branch Library to learn about the remarkable life of Elizabeth Keckley, the dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln and the author of Behind the Scenes, 30 Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Performed in retrospect by the East Haddam Stage Company, this dramatic recounting of Keckley's journey from enslavement to entrepreneural success is both educational and inspirational.

A talk by the exhibition’s curator, Deborah Willis, Chair and Professor of New York University, Tisch School of the Arts Photography and Imaging.

Abolitionism in Black and White: The Anti-Slavery Community of Boston and Cambridge

Friday, October 23, 2009

Evening

The Museum is host to the opening reception for this two-day public symposium that includes the reading of a new play about self-emancipated Harriet Wilson and workshops led by scholars Jim and Lois Horton, David Blight, John Stauffer, Jean Fagan Yellin and others.

Partner:
BOAF

African Meeting House
Boston

Archaeology of the African Meeting House

Thursday, October 22, 2009

6:00 p.m.

Featuring

Dr. Cheryl LaRoche and Dr. David Landon

In celebration of Archaeology Month, Doctors LaRoche and Landon will give an overview of process of archaeological discovery undertaken by the Museum at the African Meeting House as part of the preparations for the Meeting House's bicentennial in 2006. The excavations, performed by a research team from the University of Massachusetts Boston, uncovered over 38,000 artifacts that reflect the lives of Boston's 19th century free African American community. These artifacts connect us to the routines of daily life for the men, women, and children who lived on Beacon Hill and gathered at the African Meeting House.

Archaeology of the African Meeting House
will be available for purchase.

This is the inaugural traveling exhibition of the
Smithsonian Institution National
Museum of African American History and Culture
featuring 69 photographs of notable black Americans from the 19th Century to the present.

The Museum is co-convener of this town hall “to build and strengthen bridges between community and national leaders committed to making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity at education.” To be held at Northeastern University and sponsored by the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Includes student presentations and panel discussion featuring Hill Harper, actor & author.

Learn about the legacies and times of two extraordinary African American writers, Harriet Wilson and Amelia Johnson.

In the recently released 150th anniversary edition of Wilson’s Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), Foreman and her co-editor “managed to pick up one of the coldest trails in 19th-century African American studies” and to detail Wilson’s intriguing life as an entrepreneur and then as Boston’s “earnest and eloquent colored medium.” In her archival work, Foreman has also unearthed the role the “demure” author Amelia Johnson played in radical legal and educational rights. Both Wilson’s and Johnson’s work are featured in Foreman’s latest book, Activist Sentiments: Reading Black Women in the Nineteenth Century.

Both books will be available for purchase.

Lessons From NantucketSeptember 17, 2009
Noon-1:00pm
46 Joy Street

Pack your lunch and join us at the Museum for a lecture by Barbara Ann White. Learn from the new edition of her inspiring history of the 19th century African American community on Nantucket that worked together to ensure education for their children. Admission, beverages, and dessert are free! Bring your lunch, friends, and co-workers to take part in this special event.

From Iowa to the White House
Historic Photos of President Obama

August 27 to September 1, 2009

Cousen Rose Gallery
71 Upper Circuit Avenue, Martha’s Vineyard

The historic photos showcased are the work of award winning Boston Globe columnist and noted photojournalist, Derrick Z. Jackson, who traced President Obama’s epic journey from the campaign trail to his first Press Conference in the White House.

The exhibit took place from August 27 to September 1, on the Vineyard at the noted Cousen Rose Gallery, 71 Upper Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs. The exhibit was free and open to the public, the photos, signed by the Jackson, were for sale to benefit the Museum’s youth programs. If you are interested in obtaining a signed copy of one or more of the photos, please contact Chandra Harrington, charrington@maah.org

Wearing white pantaloons and a long tailcoat, Robert Olson will recreate the nineteenth century magic of black entrepreneur and magician Richard Potter (c.1783-1835). Richard Potter is featured in the Museum’s latest exhibition, Black Entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th Centuries open until September 30, 2009.

Black Entrepreneurs of the 18th and 19th Centuries is the Museum’s new exhibition, developed in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The exhibit features 40 African American entrepreneurs from the Colonial Period through the 19th century. The exhibition will run through September 30, 2009.

Is That Your Child? Thursday, May 7, 2009, 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Museum of African American History
46 Joy Street,
Beacon Hill,
Boston

Marion Kilson and Florence Ladd, authors of the book, Is That Your Child?, will read from their book and discuss their research into the lives of mothers with biracial children. Following the reading, the authors will sign their book. Books will be for sale in the Museum Store.

Celebrating the life and Work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra's Intensive Community
Program

January 19, 2009
3:00 pm

Family Concert

Enjoy the musical
talents of a group of young people from the Intensive Community
Program. Delight in the orchestral sounds of gospel, spirituals,
classical music and hear readings from the speeches of Dr. King.

Presented by The Museum of African American History and The City of
Boston